England up for the Ashes fight, says Hoggard by CricketArchive staff reporter

---

Player:	MJ Hoggard
Event:	England in Australia 2006/07

---

DateLine: 30th November 2006

 

Matthew Hoggard says England will have to bowl as a team and put pressure back on to the Australian batsmen if they are to stay alive in the Ashes series in Friday's second Adelaide Test. The tourists are coming off a 277-run hiding from the Ashes opener in Brisbane and seamer Hoggard expects England to lift after the disappointing performance at the Gabba. Hoggard is expected to share the new ball with Steve Harmison, who has been working hard to recapture his bowling rhythm which spectacularly deserted him in Brisbane, highlighted by his shambolic opening wide delivery. "It's hard to watch somebody struggling, especially in front of a lot of people and getting abuse from all sides," Hoggard said Wednesday of Harmison's travails. "He openly admits he didn't bowl well but he's worked hard. He's been putting in the hard yards and he's feeling good about his bowling. I think we'll see a different Steve Harmison come Friday morning." Hoggard was bemused that he was unable to get swing on the Gabba pitch and finished with the unflattering figures of 2-141, although he claimed the first innings wickets of Ricky Ponting and Adam Gilchrist with consecutive balls. "We didn't bowl particularly well in the last game so everybody's upped the intensity to try and get back into this Test series," the Yorkshire paceman said. "We're going to have to put in a lot of patience, we're going to have to put the pressure back on the batsmen and make them work hard for their runs. We've looked at the areas where we need to improve and hopefully we can put the plans into action come Friday." Hoggard, who is the team's leading Test wicket-taker with 224 victims, is expecting the ball to "reverse swing" on the abrasive Adelaide Oval wicket, which is expected to crack open during the match. Reverse swing comes into effect once the ball becomes older and more worn and it moves in the opposite direction to where it would usually swing with no great change in the bowling grip. "Last time we played here (against South Australia on tour) it swung a little bit," Hoggard said. "I've been talking to (South Australian skipper) Darren Lehmann who says it reverses here so we'll look after the ball and see if we can get some conventional and reverse swing." The England bowlers used reverse swing to devastating effect in last year's Ashes series triumph over Australia on their home wickets. "We've shown good resolve and shown that we can compete, especially in the last two days (of the Gabba Test)," he said. "We batted really well and it was important we put in some good partnerships. We dug in and showed them that we can play and that we're here to fight. The England team's got a lot of fighters in it." Hoggard will be hoping for better results than his last Test match in Adelaide four years ago when he finished with 1-84 and 6-375 for the series at a cost of 62.5. "I need to take some of the experience from the sub-continent and apply it here, just build up the pressure and realize that we're not going to just blast people out,' Hoggard said of his task ahead. "We've got to put the pressure back on the batsmen and make them work hard for their runs." Hoggard said it was crucial that England did not lose the Adelaide Test and fall behind 2-0 in the series heading to the third Perth Test. ``It's important that we don't lose. We need to go out and show the Australians that we're here to fight," he said. "It's going to be a hard Test match to win, the wicket is normally flat and is normally a spinning wicket so Shane Warne is going to be coming to the fore. If we can bat well and make sure that their seamers have to work very hard for their wickets and try and nullify the Warne factor then I think it could be a very interesting Test."